A CALL to ban animals from being given away as prizes was labelled a “waste of time” by the city council’s Conservatives.

Green city councillor Neil Laurenson had led a call to ban the “archaic practice” of using animals as prizes at fairgrounds and on social media which led to criticism from a number of Tory councillors.

Warndon councillor Andy Roberts accused Cllr Laurenson of bringing the council into disrepute by making the call, a suggestion which the Green councillor said was “frankly outrageous.”

The row over the proposals led to Cllr Laurenson also accusing the council’s Conservatives of “astonishing arrogance” and said it was his job to raise issues brought to him.

Tory councillor Jim Carver, who is of Romany descent, said he was offended by the suggestion that funfair workers who gave away animals as prizes were treating them cruelly and hoped it was not a dig at the traveller community.

“Is this aimed at the show community?” he queried. “I hope not. I sincerely hope it is not.

“I would certainly not stand in the way of any showman earning a living that they have carried on generations before them.”

Cllr Chris Mitchell said the plea was a waste of time and told councillors to be more responsible and grow up before coming to meetings to which Cllr Laurenson pointed out that councillors had spent 40 minutes discussing his motion on a British soldier facing a murder charge over the killing of two people on Bloody Sunday.

“I’m personally getting sick and tired of these pointless, stupid motions,” Cllr Mitchell said during a full meeting of Worcester City Council at the Guildhall on Tuesday (July 13).

“I’m not sure what they aim in achieving other than a little bit of favour with a very small part of the community.”

More criticism came from city council leader Marc Bayliss who said backing the motion would just be agreeing to “more virtue signalling” and was not a priority for the city as it came out of Covid.

“We have far more important things to talk about than this,” he said. “I would encourage people to focus on things that really matter and keep this council focused on those.”

The motion was narrowly lost with city mayor Stephen Hodgson using his casting vote to reject the call.